INCREASED LOCAL DRUG TRAFFIC HAS US WORRIED

While The Facts Are Difficult To Come By, There Is Disturbing Anecdotal
Evidence That Drugs And The Drug Culture Are Growing In Opelousas.

Neighboring parishes say they are seeing more cases in their courts from
drug activity that originated not in Houston or New Orleans or somewhere
else, but in Opelousas.

An increase in violence in the home and on the street could be another
indicator.

And we are surely aware that as Opelousas grows as a center of commerce,
attracting more people for legitimate reasons, it will also grow as a
center of illicit commerce. The factors that make a St. Landry Parish that
is growing in population and in pay scale attractive to all sorts of
retailers are the very same things that make us attractive to those with
less than legal things on their minds.

We need to be on our guard.

Opelousas has worked too hard to rid itself of drug traffickers and all the
bad news that they bring to let them sneak back into our community. We have
claimed our streets as our own and we want to keep them as our own.

But bad people will come back if good people look the other way when they
see them. Bad things will drive out the good if we let it happen.

This is not just a problem for our law enforcement agencies to address.
They have worked tirelessly, and sometimes faced deadly danger head on, to
restore Opelousas to its decent citizenry, and we are certain that they
will continue to face the challenge.

But they cannot do it alone. This is a problem for all of us - every
citizen - to be concerned about. The bad guys will take all the slack we
give them. Each of us must be vigilant, concerned, and involved.

That does not mean that we must put ourselves in harm's way. Doing that
will just make the problem worse. But it does mean that we can pick up the
phone and call the police when we see something suspicious. It does mean
that we can keep an eye or our neighborhoods and watch for signs of
trouble. And it does mean that we as a community can declare loud and clear
that we want every neighborhood, every street to be a place where our kids
can play.

We also have to remember that getting drug traffickers off the streets is
only a part of the solution. We need also to address the root causes of
drug use - unemployment, poverty, peer pressure, boredom - to keep it from
getting started, and we must continue to build accessible avenues of help,
here at home, for those who become ensnared by it.